Swollen Members emcee Madchild isn’t living up to his name, and that’s a good thing. After years of struggling with an addiction to Percocet and Oxycontin, the madness is over for Madchild, who succeeded in kicking his habit. It wasn’t easy, and the world is a lot different from when he started using, as he notes “it’s like coming back from jail after five years,” but he’s now 23 months sober, and applying to get his US ban lifted so he can tour America.

To say Madchild has been leading an eventful life would be a bit of an understatement. He went from being a Canadian hip-hop hero, to a drug addict, to what he is today - a ferocious emcee who is incredibly open about his life, and speaks at high schools counseling the youth. “Things that I used to think were cool,” he explains, “I’ve realized are completely the opposite of cool, and completely bullshit.”

Madchild’s frankness about his life is on display on his just released solo album, Dope Sick, and I caught up with him to find out more about the project and everything that inspired it, including his fall into addiction, and his recovery. Madchild also discussed his unique take on song structure, and how he sees his new music affecting listeners.

B-Listers are a select group of artists that were featured in my Artist Of The Week series that ran every Monday from April of '06 to April of '11. All of these artists have two things in common; extreme talent, and a flight path far too under the radar for my liking. They took on the title of B-Listers as they embraced being featured by me, Adam B. Check out the AOTW Archives for all the interviews.